When your own money is on the line, you’ll find you pay much, much closer attention to every detail of your work.

Let’s get started

Imagine you’re going to create a short online course. The course will have 15 video lectures.

As for the topic, you probably have an idea or two.

But before you start spending too much time on course creation, let’s be sure you’re creating something people will actually buy …

Step #1: Find and listen to your audience

No, you can’t start creating yet. First, you have to start researching and listening to your prospective audience.

And no, choosing an audience of “everyone” is not an option. Identify a clearly defined group.

Find out who they are and where they hang out. Listen to them. Ask them questions. Spend less time getting excited about what you would like to teach. Spend more time finding out what they would like to learn.

If it’s a book or ebook you’re creating, never skimp on design. Hire a great book cover designer.

Key lesson

Now you know what it feels like to have skin in the game, to be risking something.

If your client is a marketing manager, she may not be risking her own money when she hires you.

But she is risking her reputation and perhaps even her future with her employer. Respect that.

Step #3: Choose a course platform and enable payments

If you’re launching a course, you need a platform that will deliver it to your students. What’s your best option? Udemy? Teachable? Thinkific? Kajabi? A WordPress plugin like LifterLMS?

Welcome to my world! So much research. So many mistakes made along the way.

And once you choose the platform, you have to upload your lessons or lectures. And don’t forget to complete all the integrations with your email and payment providers, so the experience for your customers is seamless.

Key lesson

Your client has more on her plate than just the copy or content you’re writing for her.

There’s a very slim chance that you’ll have a blockbuster success on your hands within the first week, but the first week is just the start. It’s the beginning of a longer journey.

Key lesson

There are a ton of moving parts when it comes to selling a product.

Everything has to work together. Every word of sales copy matters.

This is the world your client lives in. So be aware of her struggles. Be kind, be supportive, and help her succeed by doing your best work and being a good team player.

Step #6: Return to your desk as a more seasoned copywriter, ready to serve your clients a whole lot better

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan and other books, tells an interesting story of the lives of bridge engineers in ancient Rome.

Back then, if you designed and built a bridge, you were required by law to take your family and live underneath the span of the bridge for at least one year. If you built a shoddy bridge and it collapsed, you and your family would be the first to die.

That’s what it means to have skin in the game.

And that’s why I think you can become a better copywriter or freelancer if you create a product of your own.

You’ll get a real sense of what it feels like to live in the shoes of your client. You’ll know how it feels to risk something.

Trust me … when it’s your own money, success, and reputation on the line, you will never, ever be satisfied with anything less than your best work.

And once you know just how good your work can be, you can deliver that same level of quality to your clients.

Nick Usborne

Nick Usborne has been working as a copywriter and trainer for over 35 years. His book, Net Words, published by McGraw-Hill in 2001, paved the way for a new generation of online writers and copywriters. Nick is the founder of Conversational Copywriting.

Reader Comments (22)

I must admit, the idea of creating and selling a product online is intimidating. The big commitment of time (at minimum) and resources (perhaps) seems daunting. That said, I can see your point. For a freelance writer like me, the experience should make me better at my craft. You’ve convinced me. I’m moving a product over to my “maybe” list. A long-term maybe at least.

Excellent information, Nick. I’ve often debated whether or not writing and publishing an e-book was worth the time and energy. You’ve just convinced me that it most certain is! Thank you for sharing your wisdom.

Great article. I can attest, nothing is as supportive to learning as creating something of your own for an audience. Lots of trial/error for myself when I did that the first time. Well, suppose, in many ways, always a continual learning/building process.

I’ve been wondering what it takes to be a good copywriter and this is an eye opener for me. Maybe now I can be more serious with completing and launching the book am currently working on. Thanks for sharing your experience.

NIck….I agree…some of us think we are smarter than most & have been guilty of not paying attention to the customer…..important to “walk in their shoes”. I only create conversational copy for my own products and no longer write copy for others…lots of skin…

I definitely can attest to the “learn by doing” principle, and add that this is the best path to getting any good at copy, as it makes you live and die by the results of your copy. I actually think any aspiring copywriter should view this as an obligatory step before going off into the market and start selling your services. Because I mean, if you can’t make your own product convert adequately, why do you think you are good enough to be selling your services to someone else?

Claudio… agreed. At the very least, I think this should be part of copywriter training courses and programs. I’m not saying you have to be massively successful selling your own product in order to hang out your shingle. I did good work for clients for over 20 years before launching my first product. But it does teach you a lot. Teaches humility too.

When it comes to making good content for the reader, you need to create value, something useful for the reader to read. So much content nowadays is spammy and written for SEO – i.e. littered with keywords.. no good! the content needs to get people interested in the first place and they you’ll be more likely to sell.

Hey Nick, amazing piece of content. Can’t agree more to the people here saying that the best way to improve your copy is by writing about your own product. I’ve been a freelance copywriter myself for a couple of years now, and since working on my own projects, the motivation for writing and the final drafts look way more impressive compared to what I was writing on demand. Thanks

A fantastic article filled with golden nuggets Nick. My biggest takeaway is literally trading places with your customers…would I buy from myself if roles were reversed? What you’ve shared here will help me be mindful about giving good value through my work.

My day job is teaching (urgh don’t remind me) so I’ve often wondered about creating my own course. I’ve done the research phase and then whenever I’ve found that people want to learn something I’m not massively interested in teaching, not what I want to teach, I’ve shied away from investing the time, not in creating the product but in creating the content to help convince people that it’s worth buying. Maybe I should start with something smaller like an ebook!

Excellent information, Nick. I’ve often debated whether or not writing and publishing an e-book was worth the time and energy. You’ve just convinced me that it most certain is! Thank you for sharing your wisdom.